Ethical Issues in Journalism and the Media

Ethical principles in modern day media and journalism are complicated and incorporate any number of situations going beyond simple corruption, or historical concepts of ethics. This book seeks to address the most pertinent ethical issues facing journalism and media and communications in general.

For manifold reasons, including political or economic pressure from without, or corruption of management from within, media institutions do not necessarily adhere to accepted standards of ethics in publishing (or not publishing) certain subjects. Journalists, too, are not immune to corruption. There are larger questions that have been raised with the spread of globalization - is the news Western-centric? Is this ethical to superimpose the Western worldview on non-Western audiences? Certain types of situations or industries face wider scrutiny, particularly healthcare journalism and any reporting that concerns human rights - conflict, prisons, children. The proliferation (and manipulation) of images thanks to digital photography is particularly sensitive and subject to ethical standards. Another area of public life that has been touched by ethics over copyright issues is museums - should art belong to the public domain and freely accessible?

This book will open with a discussion of the hegemonic influence of Western media; “Islamic and Western Perspectives on Applied Media Ethics” investigates whether ethical standards of Western journalism are fundamentally different from those of Islamic journalism. “Journalistic Ethics and Standards” delves into how journalism students believe the ethics of journalism as an institution to be compromised due to corporate and political pressure on media companies; their perception is that they are forced to renounce their ethical standards to conform to their bosses’ “unscrupulous’ demands.” Continuing this theme is an editorial on “Propaganda, Ethics, and Media” in which the editor points out that these external influences and their selective divulgence or suppression of information have severely damaged the credibility of traditional media. Financial motivations for the publication of certain stories has long been an undercurrent of journalism that defies ethical principles. “Controversies on the Publishing of the Newspaper `Curentul’” provides a Romanian case study demonstrating the murky antecedents of a local journal. One of the most corrupt ways in which journalists’ ethics can be compromised is in the receipt of money or gifts. “Journalism Ethics and Acceptance of Gifts” approaches this topic...